Say You Love Me
by Pennilles Dragon
Summary: 7 Years Post Game - Zelos and Genis make a bet. Genis has six days to make Presea fall deeply, madly in love with him. Of course it's easier said than done.
1. Day Zero: The Bet

I do not own Tales of Symphonia, I wish I did else this wouldn't be fanfiction but an actual ToS spin-off

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**Chapter 1: The Bet**

It all happened two days ago…  
Actually let me rephrase, I'd say it all happened seven years ago. When our journey had finally come to an end and the two worlds could live together in peace and harmony. I remember it like it was yesterday, which makes me sound like an old geezer but bear with me here. After the restoration of the two worlds my sister Raine and I went on a journey to fight for the rights of half elves. We traveled far and long and for four years all we did was fight, negotiate and most of all stick together. We had to, really, one thing I learned is that, if you don't stick together when you're about to be killed by racist stupid human beings, you might as well stab your friends in the back yourself because one way or the other they _will_ die.

Anyway, where was I? O yes, after four years of long travelling, a journey full of grief and pain I might add, we went to Exile. There my sister was asked to stay with the people we lectured, so that she could support and aid them. Myself, I was just the little brother back then, but instead of staying with my sister I simply chose not to. Which leads me to where I lived for the last two full years, away from my sister at the Imperial Research Academy in Sybak. I _am _still a prodigy after all.

Sybak's Academy is okay if you get used to it, they know I'm a half-elf, but I'm smarter than them anyway so they leave me be. It's true that in the beginning it had been hard, and I missed my sister a lot. I never see her, not even in the holidays when I have free time on my hands. Instead of doing that I spend time with the biggest imbecile on the planet which, I might add, am afraid I am gradually turning into.

_Zelos Wilder_  
Obnoxious, stupid and arrogant. But he lives in a mansion and it may be hard to admit but we have fun together.

Anyway, two days ago he sent me a letter containing a ticket and a message sounding somewhat like this:

Hey there little brat _(he's really annoying)_,

You'll probably be heading to my beautiful mansion somewhere today but I say hold up my friend.  
Don't worry, don't worry, everything is under control BUT, I, the ridiculously handsome, cute, manly and witty Zelos _(really, really annoying)_, have a surprise that will make you love me even more!

You can thank me later because we will spend seven days in the beautiful, sunny, beachy _(what?)_, sandy, crowded with lots of hunnies…….

ALTAMIRA!!  
I know! I _am_ pretty terrific am I not?  
Thank me on the beach XD

Kiss, kiss, love, love _(puke, puke)_

Zelos

PS. No I mean it, I _am_ pretty terrific.

**8888888888**

And that's why somehow the next day I was in Altamira where I met my inviter somewhere on the beach and greeted him with a warmhearted:

"Why are we here again?"

To which he typically answered.

"To meet the hunnies why else?" and he hummed while he walked away to find his next victim.

Tired of the long trip I decided to go to the hotel immediately to check in and get rid of the heavy suitcase. I walked into the large lobby and nearly forgot how posh this hotel really was, with its little waterfalls and fancy elevator. Still somewhat looking around I approached the counter where a young girl was standing.

"I would like to check in." I said still a little absent minded by the splendor of the lobby.

"Of course sir." The young lady replied. "Name please."

"Zelos Wilder" I answered assuming he had already reserved a room.

"Wilder, ah yes….O, I'm sorry sir but sir Wilder explicitly asked that his butler was not staying in the same room." _Of course, BUTLER. Typical Zelos.  
_  
I rolled my eyes then looked at my wallet and started to look for some Gald.  
"A room costs eight-hundred right?" I asked still trying to find the necessary money.

"Indeed the normal suites are sir, but all of those are already booked." I silently cursed at Zelos and finally looked at the girl, who was in fact not at all as hideous as the news she just told me.

"What do you have left then?" I asked her, already thinking of the most painful way to kill Zelos.

"We only have one room left but it's marital suite, and I'm afraid it will cost five-thousand Gald sir." By now I was picturing Zelos being smashed by a meteor which I was personally going to summon.  
However there was something like a plan B for this, I've known Zelos longer than today and like I said, I _am _turning more and more into him, when it comes to one thing.

The opposite sex.

All of a sudden I smiled and said. "I'm sorry I didn't get your name."  
The girl politely smiled back. "You haven't asked sir, it's Emi."  
"Emi huh," I said while gently grabbing her hand that she had set conveniently on the counter. "You know, Emi means blessed with beauty." I lifted her hand up and brought it close to my face. "I must truthfully tell you, I am not one to believe in the meaning of names, but seeing you." I kissed her hand, gently, almost non-touching. "I am willing to reconsider." I saw her blush creeping up very slowly.

_Score_.

"But alas, I must get going, if not I may not find another chance to take the last ferry home, since it's all booked here." I grabbed my previously set down suitcase then looked once more at the lady. "Goodbye, _Emi_."  
And I slowly walked towards the entrance while counting in my head.

3,

2,

1,

"Wait sir!"

_Ladies and gentlemen we have a winner._

"mmm?" I said innocently turning my head.

"no one's marrying anytime soon sir." She said while starting to fiddle her hair. I'm good at what I do.

"And?" I asked.

"And the rooms won't be rented until someone will marry so, I guess it's okay you could take it for the normal price."

_Will he continue __for the Jackpot?_

"In fact, as a guest and customer of our other facilities you might as well use the suite for free."

_Jackpot_

"Well, it seems that is an offer I can't refuse." I walked up to her once more my face so close to her I could feel her breath. "How could I ever thank you, Emi?"

"Just doing my job sir." She nervously replied. Just the answer I wanted.

"And you do it well Emi." I said while walking up to the elevator. "You do it well…."

**8888888888**

When I arrived at my floor I contently took the white card out of my pocket to open the door that led to my gorgeous room.

At least, that was my intention.

Because the damned card just wouldn't open the damned door….

I cursed while attempting to open the door once again,

And again,

And again.

When at the sixth time the door once again didn't open (which is pretty pathetic for a five-thousand Gald room even _if_ I got it for free).

I was just about to take the card and melt it down to ashes (it was plastic but whatever), when a young girl's voice snapped me out of my destructive mood.

"Is there a problem sir?" The voice said.

I immediately answered with an annoyed. "Yes there is a damned problem, the damned card won't open the dammnenemnemne" Which ended in a stutter like this when I looked at the girl I was complaining at.

Pink hair, ice blue eyes and the cutest smile I would ever see in _this_ world _or_ the next.

Presea Combatir.

She hadn't changed a lot in appearance, her hair was tied up and a bit longer than before, her body more of a young woman, her eyes even more captivating than they had once been, and her smile, don't even get me started on her smile.

I felt the heat coming onto my face and while I was thinking about how red my face would be about now, Presea's smile only widened when she realized who I was.

"Genis? Is that you?" She asked almost as amazed as I was, though she reacted in a way _normal_ people would act in this situation. Because I was still shocked, as if Volt took out his entire caliber on me, she just continued talking.

"I'm so happy. I haven't heard from you for such a long time, Regal told me you were accepted at the Imperial Research Academy."

With all the concentration I had I managed to blurt out. "That's Rrright" Which wasn't that much better than just standing there doing nothing really.

"What do you study?"

What do I study, O Martel, what _do_ I study anyway? I thought while trying to find out what I was doing these past two years. I study….I study….

"Mana!" I squealed in the most awful voice one could ever imagine and tried to recover as soon as possible by following it up by a ridiculously low voice. "Ahem, Mana, I study Mana."

"I see." She replied. "That's nice." She then faced the door, then me and asked. "would you please give it to me?"

Give _it _to her?... What?

She probably sensed my confusion because she cleared it up by gesturing at the _thing _in my hand and said. "The card please."

"Right, the card, I knew that." I mumbled while handing the card to her, a shiver coming up my spine when our hands touched.

She took the card and rubbed it gently up and down her sleeve. She then put the card in the slot of the door which opened with a soft click. Putting the door on a notch she handed the card back to me then bowed.

"I have to go now but, I guess I'll see you around Genis." And she walked away, and I was still gaping like an idiot.

When she was out of sight I let myself fall back in the hallway with a deep sigh.

'Smooth Genis, very, very smooth.'

I was about to close my eyes and let myself fall into a deep well of self-pity when I heard someone snicker from behind some exotic plant.

"She sure changed into one hell of a hunnie ehh?" Zelos, the one person I _did NOT_ want to see within a radius of, I'd say, two-hundred mile back then, said wiping a tear from his eye, which I knew was not from grief.

"Don't even think about it." I spat at him feeling miserable by his gloating.

"Maybe, but."

_O, no_

"It seems like you already have the hots for her. Would be mean to grab her right before your eyes." Everyone knows Zelos is an idiot but somehow instead of ignoring him, which I was supposed to do, I continued to react.

"You be damned if you even try!" I threatened.

"Don't you mean I'll be _dammmnemenemnemned_?" Zelos mocked back.

Lying on the floor already, I attempted to kick his shin but he danced out of reach before my leg was close enough, and he continued.

"Anyways little brat. You're sure you don't fancy her like I almost one hundred percent surely absolutely know for sure?"

"Yes, and talk normal you idiot." Honestly….why did I react to him in the first place?

I sort of realized my mistake when a mischievous grin appeared on Zelos' face.  
"I'll give you six days."

"What do you mean: I'll give you six days?!"

"You know, to get the girl."

"Rephrase, you're a crazy idiot."

"Six days to let her fall in love with you, make her crazy about you. And maybe I'll believe she's not the main character in your wet dreams."

"NO WAY." I simply replied, and I had kept it at that had he not said.

"Okay but you'd better not be objecting at our wedding."

Getting under my skin like that I said.

"You're on bastard! Give my six days but if you lose you won't be near any girl, woman or even a grandma for the next three months." Meh, at least the conditions were good.

Zelos merely shrugged. "I'm not going to lose anyway. As for you, I'll tell you _when_ you lose." He smirked then walked into the elevator. "O and for the record. She has to say: I love you!"

I looked at him walking into the elevator giving him the nastiest look I could create until the door closed and I finally realized what I just said. I let myself fall down once again with my eyes closed cursing myself for my stupidity.

" O goddess Martel….What have I done?!"

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Whatever I'm supposed to do instead of posting stories...I ain't doing it.

Don't forget to review, unless you weren't planning to do so... (please plan to do so)


	2. Day One: KO

I've been lazy but I'll update sooner next time...I just want to get 10 reviews...or 15.

15 would be like wow.

O and I changed the title of the story for no particular reason whatsoever.

I do not own ToS...seriously

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**Day One: K.O.**

My first night in the ridiculously large room in the Altamira hotel slowly went by. And while I lay spread on the bed staring at the decorated ceiling, I felt miserable, tired, but most of all so damned stupid.

Miserable because I listened to Zelos.  
Tired because I couldn't sleep because I listened to Zelos.  
And stupid because I got into some stupid bet because I listened to Zelos.  
And though I would love to blame everything on that sick bastard, I was the one who actually 'agreed'. With some encouragement, but still.

But I didn't have time to lie in my self-pity for long. I had to get myself some strategy. For feeling miserable, tired and stupid didn't mean I was going to _lose_.  
So ,although I felt worse than a lobster in a restaurant aquarium, I was not to be taken aback by some idiot, especially not Zelos, the mother of all idiots, and I decided to at least make a plan.

Some guidelines.

Heck at least some notes.

I reluctantly stood up and walked to the balcony and looked at the horizon showing slight signs of the sun rising.  
After fifteen minutes of nonstop staring I felt a plan coming up.

I just didn't know what it was yet.

Frustrated I ruffled my already pretty unsightly looking hair. No more playing around. Think of something!

And finally my brain started to show some activity.

Presea obviously cannot fall in love with me if she never actually _sees_ me. So I should find out her schedule. Right….so got to find out what she does, when she does it, and how the hell I'm going to be at the same spot at the exact same time without her thinking I'm some kind of fanatical stalker.

Which I'm not.

My brain decided that while it was working, it might as well keep going, so popped up the question: Is she even single?  
Which I carefully registered as "Minor Detail".

**8888888888**

After a bath and a 'pathetic attempt to fix my hair' I walked into the hallway where I met Presea the other day, and where I got myself into some serious trouble (for more information see chapter 1).

It was deserted.

I really couldn't care less if any maid decided to 'not' show up at my floor any time of the year. Just not today.

Today people had to be luring on my floor, there needed to be millions of people here, cleaning or helping costumers, or loafing around, or doing nothing…..or loafing around…

I sighed, a sigh of _almost_ defeat when I suddenly heard a ruckus coming from the lift.

"I don't care if his mother is ill and might not survive! I need him in my restaurant!"

"But sir, she is the last family he has left…after his father and sister died in an accident..."

"Do I look like I care! Tell him I want him _in_ the restaurant within one hour or he might as well dig a hole for his mother himself because of his unlimited amount of free time he's got after he's _lost his job_!"

"Sir! You can't do that!"

"All the guy's got to do is cook some pasta, bake some eggs, any moron on the street would be able to do it."

"But…"

"No more buts or you can join him."

Now I'm not the kind of person to mess up other people's lives (unless we're talking about Zelos of course). But Martel was giving me signs here that I could not ignore, who ignores something so easy, so brilliant?

Hell, I sure didn't.

The chef, who had been yelling the entire time was now fuming in front of the lift door and as I said, had it not been my only chance, I would probably walk past him with a big _'I've got nothing to do with this'_ curve.

Instead I walked up to him and said.

"I couldn't help but overhearing what you said earlier, and ummm, I would like to apply for the job."

The chef was silent for a moment and gave me a skeptical look.

"Can you cook?"

"I sure can."

"Rissotto."

"Definitely."

"Tenderloin"

"Most certainly"

"Curry"

"Emphatically"

"Short Cake"

"Unquestionably"

"Ratatouille"

"Probably"

"Sachertorte"

I thought for a moment then replied "Maybe?…" Such a picky geezer, I thought he said the guy was only supposed to cook pasta and bake some eggs.

The annoying chef pondered for a moment then said.

"Very well, you start right now, don't nag, don't burn anything and don't drop expensive tableware. If I see you doing something wrong, you're out. That's all."

I raised an eyebrow at him. Must be real hard getting some qualified personnel around here.

He now faced the girl who had been defending the poor guy who has lost his job to me.

"You." He said.

The girl nervously turned to the overwrought man.

"Yyes sir?"

"Guide him to the kitchen." With that the man walked away with a firm step.

I looked at the young woman with a questionable look meaning: "is he always like this?"

Which the girl answered with a nod.

"Don't just stand there you useless woman, do as I told you!"

The girl jumped took my hand and quickly dragged my into the elevator, away from the devil chef.

**8888888888**

The restaurant of Altamira's hotel is just like that of any other.

Only it fancier, bigger, better and most of all, scarier.

While a normal restaurant could manage with about ten stoves, this restaurant had about fifty.

When in Altamira you asked for a special menu, you would get one. Wanted to eat the tongue of a newborn mandrake? You will get to choose between male and female.

Wanted to eat the skin of a two-hundred years old pregnant tortoise, you can name the area. Wanted some wings from an unknown species found only in your history books? The chef would say: "I'll see what I can do."

It's the living proof that money can indeed buy _nearly_everything.

I was still looking at the big kitchen in front of me, awed, flabbergasted, stuff like that. When the girl who guided me here bumped into a small guy who looked a bit like a leprechaun with a job change. He had bright red hair trimmed in a neat beard and eyes surrounded by laughing wrinkles (which was a lot better than the frown lines the chef had).

"Roddy!" The girl shouted trying to get above all the noises of the kitchen. "this is ..."

"Genis!" I shouted.

"Yes, Genis! He's replacing Stefan. Can you look after him for a few hours?"

"No problem!" The small guy shouted back in a quite normal voice. This was kind of a letdown. I was expecting some squeaky voice, or some accent, but anyway.

The girl nodded, then quickly went out of the kitchen dumping me with the leprechaun.

"Follow me!" He said while gesturing me to tag along.

When I stood next to him he started to talk while quickly pointing to every spot in the ridiculous kitchen.

"Here are the pans, here are the ingredients. Here the orders will be placed. Don't cook over _here _because this stove sometimes overheats or turns off, don't use _these_ knives because they're useless and whatever you do, don't ever place your finished orders on _this table_ because this is the table for food that the stuck-up rich people are not happy with. That food will be thrown away and you would have to start all over again." He sadly shook his head.

"Cost Philippe his job it did. Two hours of cooking a birthday cake with the most expensive wine of the century. Poor fellow."

This guy was starting to freak me out.

When after two minutes the chap still wasn't done mourning I interrupted with a cough and said.

"Where do I start?"

The man immediately lit up and said, "oh, over there" He pointed at a counter. "Orders will be placed through that window. Wait in line for your order, big orders are written down and cooked in teams, you're not in one so that's useless information for you (why was he telling me then?). Just move along to the counter and they will help you out."

So I moved to the counter where a line of cooks were already waiting.

Well not exactly waiting since it moved so fast that it seemed like they were just running in organized lines.

"Two Meat Stews!"

"One Miso, One Ramen and one hot chocolate!"

"French fries with tuna."

Finally I was at the front of the line and I was waiting for my small order when I suddenly got.

"Two Risotto, four tenderloin, three shortcakes, five curry, three ratatouille and one Sachertorte."

Taken aback by this big order (and the fact that not only Sachertorte was actually _asked_ but also everything else the chef asked I could cook) I luckily remembered it all while the crowd automatically pushed me to the side.

I wondered what a 'big' order was like.

Influenced by the rushing fellow cooks I immediately went for a stove and started to run everything through. Start with the curry, what do I need? Rice, onions, potatoes, carrots, pork, spices. With ungraceful spasms I picked everything I needed and started cooking like crazy. You know, seven years ago I had the problem of not having the ingredients. The current experience told me that not having enough time, is incomparably worse.

Two fallen eggs, one ruined saucepan and seventeen dishes later I had one small problem.

What's Sachertorte?

Figuring Roddy was my guardian for the moment I walked to a stove opposite to me where Roddy was frying some funky looking meat rolls.

"Is it all coming along?" He asked.

"Well, I finished nearly everything. But I've got one small problem."

"Fire away!"

"I don't know what a Sachertorte is, so it's impossible for me to cook one."

Roddy almost dropped the frying pan in terror. He turned around in a shot and looked me in the eye like I just told him I killed his mother and served her intestines to the customers as a side dish.

"You don't know! How can you work here if you don't know how to make Sachertorte!"

"Look, I don't know, but can you show me how to do it?"

Roddy pointed to a list of orders that was lying next to the oven, it was huge.

"Does it look like I can afford that?" He shook his head then continued. "Look, here's what you've got to do. Bring the finished dishes to the customers, apologize, then go down the personnel elevator and take the second room to your right. That's where all the recipes of the restaurant are stored."

Great.

Just great.

**8888888888**

When I walked into the restaurant it wasn't at all as interesting as the kitchen.

Partly because I had already seen it and partly because it just wasn't interesting.

"Follow me please." A tall waiter told me.

I followed him to where my guests (should I call them that?) were.

Not surprised we stopped at a large table, where several snobbish people were sitting. Every face sourer than the other. I waited until everyone had his or her plate in front of them when I attempted to speak.

But was interrupted by a loud wail.

"Where is my Sachertorte!"A fat little child said. He looked a bit like a skippy ball with an allergic reaction. His cheek were swollen en red and his eyes looked like little splits in a large pool of spoiled brat.

"My apologies, the Sachertorte will be coming within one hour."

"One hour!" An even more horrid voice shrieked.

"My boy cannot wait for one hour!" The mother of the skippy ball, who looked like a balloon herself, yelled at me.

"I'm sorry but"

"What kind of restaurant is this?" She immediately stood up, almost flipping the table while doing so, and started to yell.

"Chef! Chef! I want to speak to the chef immediately!"

"Calm down miss, calm down please?" I said in a panicked voice. Losing my job now would mean utter disaster.

The lady sat back down as if nothing happened, or, even better, as if she did this _all the time_.

"I will get your Sachertorte and you will get it for free." I improvised, not knowing the price of a Sachertorte or any other helpful information.

"If it takes more than fifty minutes, not only will I get you fired, I will also not pay a dime to this crooked restaurant."

"Yes ma'am." I said, bowing and racewalked to the personnel-elevator, to find that damned recipe.

**8888888888**

If the kitchen was fancy I daresay the hallway I arrived in looked like the set of some badly directed horror movie. Some kind of damp fog was coming through one of the doors and I could swear I heard a little girl screaming from far away. But I didn't care about the mysterious fog, nor about the girl who could be dying that instant. I had one goal.

_Sachertorte_

So I dashed down the corridor and was about to walk into the second room to the right (which was a good two-hundred meters away from the first room to the right), when I ran into someone.

No seriously _ran_ into someone.

I took the blow and, trying not to fall flat on my face, twirled comically around my axis. However the person I bumped into was probably lighter than me, or not prepared for some cook (sort of) to, at something something miles an hour slam into him or her, and was slung towards the right side of the door opening and fell down sideways, probably unconscious.

Of course I wouldn't have cared less if that person wasn't Presea.

I think some seconds passed with me just staring at her unmoving body in awe, shock and terror. And then the panic came, and millions of: What do I do? What do I do? What do I do! Ran through my head like there was no tomorrow.

When after some rethinking I decided I couldn't just leave her there and lifted her up. Even ignoring the fact that I have a key crest she was still surprisingly light and it wasn't a problem to lift her up and I could have thrown her a couple of meters in the air had I wanted to, however I already knocked her unconscious so my work was pretty much done for the moment.

After some pondering I decided she would be best of lying down somewhere, and with somewhere I meant my room because I couldn't just ask the staff to help me 'hide' some unconscious maid's body. How suspicious can you get?

I waited until I was sure no one was around and quickly ran for the elevator which was luckily empty. It was a rundown elevator and far uglier than the one I used before. I pressed in floor 80 and up we went. Slowly, wobbly, quite distressing, but at least it worked.

When we finally reached the top floor, having, by some miracle, avoided every other employee there, I hopped towards my room as quickly as I could.

I clumsily tried to push my card trough the stubborn door and luckily it opened on the first try. I walked backwards into the big suite to the bed where I gently laid Presea down who was still unconscious.

And though it was all my fault and this was not going be in favor of the bet, I couldn't help to think she looked so peaceful and beautiful lying in the bed.

Like a princess.

Like the sweetest being I had ever seen.

Even sweeter than chocolate or cake or….

Damn…

_The Sachertorte…_

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Please if you liked this story review. It's what keeps me going, it's my fire.

Please tell me what you liked and did not like about the story, did I go too OC?

Don't feel forced to review but I'd appreciate it if you took the time to do so.

Hope to see you next chapter


	3. Day Two: To File

After such a loooong holiday from fanfiction I'm back. But _**OMG**_ people please forgive me -_-; It's been like a year or something.

Thank you **SkippingZombie **and **MORONRON** for your messages. And don't worry **MORONRON** I appreciate these messages more than anything because they keep me going )though seriously I´ve been dead'. As for **SkippingZombie: **English, German, Dutch. I can understand French but I'm a slow sentence maker, but I dropped my German classes in order to become fluent in French (don't like the German language at all). As for German, I spent my summer holiday in Berlin and they kept talking English to me. Don't talk English -_-; I can speak German! It's just that I don't look German...

**Tanali **asked whether a Sachertorte is real or not. Why, yes it is. The Sachertorte is the most famous chocolate cake in the world. It's from Vienna. Only the bakery of Sacher has the REAL recipe but there are lots of Sacher wannabes around. However if you want the Original Sachertorte you can order it from the Sacher bakery (they come in nifty boxes), apparently you can preserve these things for a very long time (like a couple of weeks more than you're accustomed to). If by reading this you have gotten the idea of ordering one, send me a piece.

.... I'm serious

**8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8**

**Chapter 3**

After a night of excessive non-sleeping and coming up with at least a thousand useless explanations concerning Presea, the state she was in, and my role in it all, I gave up hope altogether. In fact for the last couple of hours my thoughts were already to Kratos, and just _how_ difficult it would be to emigrate to Derris Karhlan.

It didn't matter much because she woke up unexpectedly and I didn't know what to say, even if I had rehearsed a million times beforehand.

Which I didn't.

I rubbed my temples and counted to three. What was the first that could happen anyway. She could think I was weird, but I bet she thought that anyway. On the other hand, I could lie. But I didn't have a lie. After quickly rehearsing a couple of possible sentences I got up from the sofa (couldn't sleep next to her, disastrous) and walked up to the foot-end of the bed.

She looked at me, still a bit sleepy. Her hair all ruffled up (cute). She groaned and slowly sat up from the bed. "Genis?" She said, well I presumed she said that anyway since all I could hear was my heart attempting to leap out of my chest. She looked around a bit and blinked once. twice then redirected herself to me and asked. "Where am I?" I was staring for a couple of seconds when I finally got the clue that it was my turn in the conversation. "You had an ehhh... accident."

Yes, the right word was accident. Good work Genis.

"What happened?"

And just like that I decided to just tell her the truth. Not rehearsed, and not the entire "you know we had this bet" truth, but from the job I got at the restaurant till me knocking her out, that was the truth.

"But, why did you want to work at the restaurant on your holiday?"

"Well," I started, thinking of a good way to save this conversation. "The chef seemed like a really nice guy."

I waited for her reaction. And, to my pleasant surprise she started to laugh. Not the, why are you telling me this terrible lie, laugh but a genuine laugh.

And I couldn't help but laugh too, this was the first bit of luck in three days.

**8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8**

After talking a while in my _free_ suite, and I made sure Presea was okay, we went out. She had to work, I didn't.

_Tried to think of ways to eat as much away from the hotel as possible.....Just in case._

But since I told her I was going out anyway (don't know why), she insisted on dropping me off at the front door. Which was sweet, but then again, Presea is a sweet girl.

"This is it I guess.." I said while looking at her expectantly for some sign of remorse or any sign that I was getting any closer to my impossible goal.

Nothing.

"I hope I'll be able to see you again soon." I added.

A hint of red crept to her cheeks while she bowed and walked into the door not looking back. As the entrance door closed an uncontrollable laughter overcame me.

She _blushed_, I couldn't believe it, there was indeed still hope. Little hope, but hope nonetheless.

The happy feeling however, could not stay long because _The Great Idiot_ who I had not seen approaching was in front of me all of a sudden, looking at me with his dumb grin, like he always did.

"What do you want?" I immediately said before he started coughing up annoying comments about _everything_.

"Why are you always so mean to me?" He pouted. I just kept glaring at him. Zelos chuckled and smacked me on my back. "Lighten up little brat, I just saw you talking to Presea and got a bit curious. She smitten with you yet?"

I smirked at him. "What's wrong? Worried?"

Zelos laughed. "Me, worried? It'll ruin my perfect face." I scowled at him which he ignored because he was staring off in the distance somewhere. When I wanted to ask him what the hell he was scheming now he cut me off and said. "You have nothing to do right, let's take a little walk."

I frowned at him, suspicious of his intentions. Zelos may be an idiot, but a very calculating one. Looking at my facial expression he smirked. "Ahh, you think I'm scheming something, that's so cute!" I jumped away when he wanted to pull my cheek.

"What's wrong? Worried?" He added playfully. I immediately answered in my most dramatic voice:"Me, worried? It'll ruin my perfect face." I followed him as he started walking to the bridge, connected to the train platform. I kept looking at his eyes trying to find a hint of what he was planning because he wasn't speaking. And when Zelos isn't speaking it's either because he isn't there, or because he's scheming something.

He was there alright.

Because I kept staring at Zelos face it completely went past me that we were approaching someone strangely familiar.

"We meet again Bryant." Zelos said while shaking hands with the Ex-Convict/Company President/ Billionaire Regal Bryant. In shock I finally turned my head and was looking at Regal Bryant in full glory, that is, minus the handcuffs and icky convict suit of doom.

He smiled as he shook Zelos hands. "How many times do I have to tell you, please call me Regal." He turned his head to me. "Genis, you have grown into a fine young man indeed."

I was still a bit flustered and weakly shook his hands and managed to answer with a weak "thank you." Zelos now, cut in and said, but let's get to the chase. Genis here, said he would be honoured helping out with sorting the files on the second floor."

That bastard. I was about to protest when Regal said. "You will? I'm glad, I didn't want to ask any off my staff because important files concerning the exspheres are still there."

And it was now officially impossible to decline. But then again I should have known the bastard had some plan to hinder me. But of course that didn't mean that he was going to get away with it. I laughed and playfully put an arm around his waist (at least for the eye of the beholder because in reality I wanted to break his ribs).

"Zelos is so modest Regal. He said he really wanted to help us out, but he was doubting whether he was smart enough to understand all of those difficult files and documents."

"In that case he can join us too."

Zelos pulled away my arm and laughed. "That really isn't necessary Regal, I don't want to be a nuisance and..."

"No, I insist."

".....Ok.....Excuse me for a moment." Zelos was still smiling while he violently pulled me away out of hearing-site from Regal. I smirked at him and mumbled:

"Ha! You're trying to scam me? Well good luck."

"I wanted to get you away from Presea for today. That worked didn't it? You getting me involved was just a small setback. I tiny tread in a giant masterpiece called _Zelos' Victory!_"

This guy has serious issues, I swear.

**8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8**

With some confidence I can say that reading material never freaks me out.

The second floor of Lezareno Company however, is an exception .

Thousands, no millions of papers were piled in huge stacks, some as high as the ceiling, some thinking about falling down at any moment. Bewildered I looked to the other side and gasped when I saw the other side of the room filled with books, books and more of those damn loose papers.

I frowned and looked at Regal with a pale face. To my annoyance he just chuckled.

"Yes, the library has gotten a bit larger over the years, the pope forbid many sorts of lecture and kept a lot of files in his own hands. After his death Sybak wanted to burn it, of course I couldn't let them do that. The idea was that I would get it sorted out when I had time but..."

"You didn't have time." I finished trying to hide the annoyance from my voice. I coughed and looked around again.

_Seriously this was a nightmare._

"Can't you let employees do it?" I asked.

Regal face turned very serious at this. "I try to trust my employees to a certain extent, however I do not know what it is that is written on these files. I had rather ask those I trust completely to complete the task with me."

"Alright, what do you want me to do?"

"Ahh yes, I'm still busy on this side of the room so if one could help me here and the other one would go into the room next to this one. We'll only be sorting the papers on subject and..."

Regal was cut off by Zelos who just got out the elevator because he just _had_ to hit on the receptionist .

_God I hate that guy._

"I'll be helping you Regal." _Sneaky bastard._

"So..," Zelos started looking at me. "You'll be working _alone_ over there."

"Well, no. Not exactly." Regal answered looking at the glowing lamp above the lift that just stopped on floor 2.

"I've asked for some more help actually."

"Hello everyone." In shock I looked inside the lift and saw that my aid was no other than Presea. I would have kept my stupid expression if I wasn't so amused at looking at Zelos' face.

Horror mixed with a bit of panic.

Burning this beautiful moment in my memory forever his face quickly returned to his regular smirk as he started speaking. "Presea, I'm so glad to see you! You can help me with the files on the side and"

Regal however, cut him off. "No I think it would be better if you helped Genis on that side, that way we can get work to the same point in the middle."

And his face returned to the horror state. I simply nodded trying to ignore the urge to start cheering.

Presea nodded and walked towards the other room. I followed casually, disappearing behind the wall.

That is, after I smirked evilly at Zelos just to make myself feel good.

My smirk disappeared when I saw that the number of papers and books were even larger her.

I didn't let my thoughts linger there for too long though because I had to concentrate on more _important _matters.

Presea had already seated herself on the floor and was comparing two files, probably wondering just on what subjects to organize them.

I stared at her and was happy to find out that my nervousness around her were a lot less than before. I guess knocking her out wasn't that bad after all.

And of course I'd never win the bet if I kept talking in these extremely cryptic sentences. If they were sentences at all.

I kept staring at her until she looked up and smiled at me. Of course I turned beet red.

Alright, so not _a lot _less.

Trying to relax I started to look at these files myself. I picked up a paper and started reading.

'_no. 1385...mana level abating...' _I picked up one file after another. This was too easy, they were all about the mana of thethealla. Which in other words meant the I would be able to sort this huge pile today, and it would take me less than forever. I took the big pile off an even bigger pile and started sorting at a quick pace, only needing to read one sentence to be able to sort it.

At Sybak they used to tell me that it looked as if I was just turning pages like crazy when I was reading a book. But I'm just an _extremely _fast reader.

"How come you can sort them so fast?" Presea said, still sitting on the floor, not even having sorted one-tenth of what I did.

I stared at her, thinking of the most un-bookish way to tell her.

"The first is human mana, second beast, third average level, fourth depletion, deterioration etcetera, third rising and growth of mana and fourth is..." I paused and looked at Presea.

"I'm sorry, I'm going too fast. Let me start again I..."

"No, don't mind me, it's just amazing you know all this."

"Thank you but it's nothing. I'm studying it after all."

Not something for me to say I know. But I _can_ be modest if I want to.

"I don't know if you would mind but wouldn't it be better if I moved piles and you sorted all of this. You're far faster than I am."

"Ok, I'll trust you on that then." I said with a smile.

Maybe, getting closer with Presea would just come naturally.

The next five hours consisted of the intensive moving and sorting of about two-thousand files. Of course this wasn't even one-fifth of our side of the room. On the other side occasionally hearing Zelos singing (annoying) loud love songs and to my surprise Regal sometimes joining in. I couldn't help but think Regal very similar to Raine. Junk collectors all alike. They never say no to things that they have no use of whatsoever.

I sighed and put the last file on the "depletion, deterioration etcetera" pile. Which at this point was up to my waist.

"This one is getting too big." I said while adjusting the pile so that it had more balance.

"I'll take half of the pile, I won't be able to do it in once." Presea said while taking a still considerably large portion in her arms.

"Should I take a part off, it looks like you took too much." I said when I saw that the pile came up to her (beautiful) eyes.

"No, I can do it." She said while taking a step backwards.

A wrong step backwards that is.

In what seemed to me like slow-motion she slipped on a misplaced file. She falls backwards.

I try to grab both her arms to keep her from falling. I'm not fast enough, I keep my balance by taking a step forward.

_I _slip on misplaced file.

I fall on top of her.

And then time returned to its normal pace and I couldn't help but wonder the position I was in. Me pinning Presea to the floor, our faces only inches away.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

She simply nodded but didn't move. And I felt like this was the moment I'd been waiting for these two days. No wait, these past six years. Almost mindlessly I move my face closer to hers, slowly.

"So Regal and I are working vigorously and you guys are taking unauthorised breaks to fool around."

We immediately rolled over to opposite sides, taken aback by Zelos' unexpected but mostly unfortunate appearance.

_I was soooo close._

"We fell." I answer my heart still beating like a drum.

Zelos shrugged. "Of course you did."

I was about to say something to mister sarcasm when Regal emerged behind him.

"I believe this is it for today it's already dark outside. Presea, Zelos, Genis, I thank you again."

"No problem." I replied with a faint smile. "I'll take some to my room too if you don't mind. I'm not fond of unfinished work."

"Are you sure? I don't want it to be a hassle."

"Don't worry about it, I'm going to my room now anyway."

Of course for Zelos, the fact that it was dark outside meant that the fun was just about to start.

"So my work here is done haha." He mused in his own bothersome way.

He almost sprinted to the lift and before Regal had the chance to say goodbye he was gone. Probably taking the receptionist to the casino or whatnot.

"I'll be going too then." I said picking up the other part of the waist high pile. The intact one.

I'm not that much of a complainer, but this pile was too heavy. A steadied myself but I was obviously having a hard time staying balanced.

"I'll help you." Presea suddenly said. I had purposely averted her gaze since the what I call now the "misplaced file incident" but she didn't seem at all flustered or embarrassed. She took the top half of the files in my hand and started to walk to the elevator. I smiled once politely to Regal, then followed her.

**8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8**

When we finally entered my room I was exhausted. No, that's not the word. _On the brink of death._

After Presea finally got the stubborn door open I immediately ran towards the table and threw the files on it. Presea quickly copying my example and sat herself on one of the chairs. I groaned while stretching my arms, trying to get _some _feeling back into my shoulders and it only came to me that today. I tried to kiss Presea, failed at the very last moment and she hadn't even said anything about it.

Now, with girls and women alike this can mean two things. One, she clearly doesn't like you but is too nice to reject you in your face. Or two, she is confused, which means she doesn't _know_ whether she liked it or not.

_Oh, Martel, please let it be two._

I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples, exhausted and slightly depressed..._again_.

"Presea, shall I take you home?" I asked still with my eyes closed.

No answer.

"Presea?" I repeated, opening my eyes. "Presea are you...oh."

I wasn't the only one who was tired. Presea, who had just set herself in the chair, had suddenly fallen asleep.

I gently lifted her up and carried her to my bed _again. _Kicking the sheets back I placed her head on the pillow and watched her sleep thinking of the irony that she was in sleeping here _again._

She didn't mind waking up here once, but I wondered if she'd still it's funny the second time.

Naturally I didn't mind. I could get used to her waking up in my bed _every_ morning.

**8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8**

This was the chapter. It took me forever and I'm so sorry about that. It won't happen again. Because then I'd be thirty when I finish this....yeah. So if it takes more than a month, start PM-ing immediately (not an order just a request, a request 8D).

I hope this chapter was decent. And I hope it was worth at least a bit of the wait.

Yours Truly,

Pennilles Dragon


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